The Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace court may be the “people’s court” but candidates Republican Matt Beasley and Democrat Claire Lindsay don’t agree on what’s more important for the judge — a law degree or peace officer’s license.

The two are vying for the position that is being vacated by current Justice of the Peace Edie Connelly, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Beasley, who holds a peace officer’s license and has worked with both the Precinct 3 Constable’s office and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, said a law degree is not common among justice court judges.

“I believe by experience and education and knowledge of county government makes me uniquely qualified to be judge,” he said

For Lindsay, a law degree is better suited as a must have for the Justice of the Peace.

“Precinct 3 JP has the highest case load of any justice of the peace court in Montgomery County,” she said. “It is a really important court and I felt it was really important for an attorney to be on the bench because of the high volume and what is at stake.”

Lindsay, who earned her law degree from New York Law School, has been practicing law in Montgomery County for eight years.

Beasley said he plans to add night court hours to allow those who need to appear in court, specifically criminal arraignment and trials, but might have difficulty attending during the day.

“Sometimes it is hard for folks to get off to deal with those cases,” he said. “What happens is they don’t show up and that turns into a warrant and then people are going to jail for citations.”

Beasley also said he won’t require meditation in cases where the parties do not want it, wants to get back into local schools with a mock trails and will push to get a medical examiner’s office for the county.

For Lindsay, she said she has done a great deal of work with Child Protective Services and looks forward to working with truancy cases.

“It’s a little like CPS,” she said. “The state legislature has given JPs a lot of tools to help kids … so that is why I want to strengthen that program.”

Lindsay said she also wanted to work with The Woodlands Township to address parking around the court by allowing residents to use public transportation to make court dates and reduce traffic in the area for existing businesses.